#male nude

Thebejewelled boy from Naples, his distinctive necklace and bangles barely visible in this shot, but more revealed by the dropping of the dark fabric which carefully covered him, when he posed for the better-known image in this set, Pompeii c1895.

An artists’ model photographed in the studio of Belgian sculptor Jacques de Lalaing, pencilled over with a grid to assist in converting image into artwork.

A beautiful model, lost in his own quiet thoughts, in this postcard published by Alfred Noyer of Paris, toward the end of the 1910s, or into the early 1920s. We can see another shot of this remarkably handsome man here.

okkultmotionpictures:

EXCERPTS >|<  Carpenter, planing a board by Eadweard Muybridge (1887)

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 | Digital Copy: Public domain

Animated GIF created from plate 379a from "Eadweard Muybridge. Animal locomotion: an electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements. 1872-1885 / published under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. Plates. The plates printed by the Photo-Gravure Company. Philadelphia, 1887.“

EXCERPTS by OKKULT Motion Pictures: a collection of GIFs excerpted from out-of-copyright/historical/rare/controversial moving images. 
A digital curation project for the diffusion of open knowledge.

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We have seen this bold model before, then demonstrating astonishing flexibility, this time simply showing off his assets to the camera. The first photograph posted has been suggested as c1890 by regular contributor Yanni, therefore this second discovery from the same set may also be estimated then.

Perched on an old sun-bleached and weathered fence, this curly-haired young man poses for a charmingly casual scene with a lovely sense of timelessness to it - the beauty of the male nude and the pleasure of being out in the sun remain unchanged through all generations.

Taken in Hungary circa 1920, this picture by E. V. Kankovszky is just a little later than those I like to concentrate on, but I could not help but include it; I do not think you will mind too much as it is such a beautiful image.

One of Vincenzo Galdi’s deliberately suggestive male nudes, the pose though looking a little uncomfortable is undoubtedly provocative. I wonder whether - as with Carlo who so flirtatiously flaunts his charms before Galdi’s camera - this was also photograph taken specifically for his lover, or intended for a wider audience who’d appreciate such a sight.

There’s an ethereal misty quality to this 1906 picture by George Henry Seeley, an otherworldly charm in the faintness and hazy blur of the fields and trees behind.

Photographic study of a male nude, Edmond Lebel (1834 -1908), taken circa 1874. 

1910 male nude with a bicycle, which I have selected for today thanks to my own bicycle, as I slipped over on the ice whilst fetching the accursed contraption from the garden. It had the good grace to join me in the indignity by falling too, straight onto my shins. I do not believe I like bicycles any more.

The sweetly ruffled-looking Carlo, so lazily at ease, almost bored - Rome 1906, by Vincenzo Galdi. I have posted more from this set here, for those new to my collection and such lovely models who have become particular favourites.

Such a sweetly carefree pose - though this may well have been staged, you can easily imagine it as a candid snapshot of a relaxed and comfortable moment, captured by a friend or lover.

Evening, by F Holland Day, circa 1900. A marvellously evocative picture, you can almost feel the cool grass under his toes.

A youthful Vincenzo Galdi modelling most charmingly for Guglielmo Plüschow, in the late 19th Century. His creative progression - from model, to assistant, to photographer in his own right, and finally gallery owner - makes for an inspiring story, and I find these early images so artistically recording the first stage in his lifelong passion truly fascinating as well as lovely to look upon.

A magnificent young man from Taormina poses in photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden’s own garden; with its rambling, scrambling, leafy climbers and classically-inspired urns and pots spilling over with yet more plants, it provides a delightfully picturesque setting, an air of slipping into wildness and decay with the passage of time, while the strapping fellow posing there that day remains forever young and perfect.

An uncommon angle from which to view a model, but interesting nonetheless!

A beautiful photograph of dancer Ted Shawn, taken in 1917, and signed to a fan some time after.

vintagehandsomemen:

Billy Wood (c. 1913)

[loc.gov]

If only more photographs were annotated this way, it is always a pleasure to know what name belongs with the models we see! Unfortunately I’ve not been able to find any biographical details for this particular Billy Wood, so if anyone knows more about him, do let me know and I’ll be glad to add a little about his life.

[edit to add - My thanks to wrestlingfred who sent the following : 
a user on Flickr suggests different William Wood possibly to be the model: amongst them British wrestler at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

Even the faintly ridiculous costume cannot detract our attention (nor that, it seems, of the model himself) from the fact this man is magnificently, wondrously, well-endowed. Nicknamed, for obvious reasons, Il Serpente (‘The Snake’), an admiring Vincenzo Galdi employed his talents many a time, the resulting pictures varying from the tastefully artistic to the deliberately pornographic. We’ve even seen him in the extraordinary guise of cigarette-smoking clown before. A true star of early gay erotica.